Premium
The “Acute coronary syndromes: consensus recommendations for translating knowledge into action” position statement is based on a false premise
Author(s) -
Forge Brett H
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2010.tb03705.x
Subject(s) - conventional pci , percutaneous coronary intervention , medicine , acute coronary syndrome , myocardial infarction , position statement , intensive care medicine , premise , medical emergency , cardiology , family medicine , linguistics , philosophy
Recent National Heart Foundation of Australia (NHFA) guidelines for management of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) recommend increasing the rates of early invasive management of ACS and providing equal access for all Australians to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) facilities. For patients with ACS managed in regional hospitals without PCI facilities, review of the evidence does not show unequivocal benefit of early routine PCI over selective PCI for patients with non‐ST‐segment‐elevation ACS or ST‐elevation myocardial infarction. The current pattern of transfer based on the NHFA guidelines is expensive and disruptive of patient care, as well as undermining regional health care services. Further increase in transfer rates and increases in PCI facilities would divert resources away from supporting the regional infrastructure needed to provide evidence‐based therapies, without any evidence that lives would be saved.